Snow plow for vehicles

ABSTRACT

To the front of the snow removing vehicle, a snow plow having a variable curved surface is mounted. The curved surface of the plow is varied by use of universal joints and telescopic cylinders. The curved surface of the plow is varied according to the snow removal conditions.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a snow plow having a variable curved surfacewhich is mounted in front of a vehicle for removing the snow.

BACKGROUND ART

A conventional snow plow for vehicles has a metallic rigid bodystructure having a predetermined curved surface, as shown in FIGS. 1 and2.

In such a conventional snow plow having a rigid body structure, thethrust angle (the edge angle θ₁, the back angle θ₂), as shown in FIG. 3;the cutting angle θ₃, the snow throwing angle θ₄, the length L of theflat portion 5, the radius of curvature R and the height H of the curvedportion 6 as shown in FIG. 4; and the size B of the snow cleaningorifice 7 as shown in FIG. 5 are all respectively invariable.

Due to the invariability of each part mentioned above the conventionalsnow plow can not accommodate the various, diverse environments such asthe quantity and type of the snow which is to be removed, theconfiguration of the road, the speed of the snow removing vehicle andthe atmospheric condition. Also due to invariability of the cuttingangle θ₃, the breaking ability of the conventional snow plow results ininefficiency in removing the snow and/or in difficulty in breaking thesnow.

Furthermore, it is difficult to select the most efficient position forremoving the maximum quantity of snow and the distance for throwing thesnow can be selected only by controlling the speed of the vehicle. Thisis particularly important if houses are situated roadside. Therefore, aconventional snow plow is very inconvenient.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of this invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems ofthe conventional snow plow.

In this invention, the above mentioned problems are solved by utilizingthe following constructions. Namely, a snow plow according to theinvention is mounted onto a fixing member installed in front of the snowremoving vehicle, and the plow is made of material which has elasticproperties. In back of the plow each set is constructed with universaljoints and a hydropneumatic cylinder, and the curved surface of saidsnow plow can be varied into the desired configuration by telescopingsaid telescopical cylinders. In this invention, the vehicle is anordinary four-wheel truck, a crawler (endless chain threads) tractor, acar on rails or others.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from thedetailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawingswhich are given by way of illustration only, and thus, are notlimitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional snow plow mounted on a snowremoving vehicle;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the conventional snow plow;

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of the conventional snow plow;

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of the conventional snow plow;

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of the snow cleaning orifice in theconventional snow plow;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the snow removing vehicle with a mounted snowplow having variable curved surface of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a side view of the essential part in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged plan view of the essential part in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 9A is an enlarged side view of the essential part in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 9B is a cross-sectional view of the area indicated by circle A inFIG. 9A of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic side view of the other embodiment in accordancewith the present invention; and

FIG. 11 is a front view looking along arrows XI--XI in FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 6 to 11, the preferred embodiments of the snow plowaccording to the present invention will be hereinunder described. To thesnow removing vehicle (in this embodiment a truck) 1, a fixing member 9is mounted which is supported by a mounting device 10, and the member isattached to hydropneumatic cylinders 11 through universal joints 12, andeach free end of the cylinders is attached to a snow plow 2 by means ofa universal joint 12.

The reference number 8 is a bracket which is mounted onto the fixingmember 9 for preventing deflective movement in a transverse direction ofthe hydropneumatic cylinders.

The cutting edge 4 of the snow plow 2 is made of hard metallic materialetc., and the body portion thereof is made of material havingpredetermined elastic properties such as metal, rubber, plastic, cloth,etc. The cutting edge is screwed onto a steel plate attached underbrackets for fixing the cylinders.

The fixing member 9 and the snow plow 2 are connected by means ofseveral universal joints 12 which are aligned longitudinally andlaterally therebetween.

As shown in FIG. 10, the configuration of the fixing member 9 may bepreformed so as to correspond to plow 2.

When the snow plow is not in use, the plow 2 is supported and fixed ontoa supporting arm (not shown) provided on the mounting device 10.

In this invention, by selectably telescoping the plurality ofhydropneumatic cylinders 11, the snow to be cleared is thrown either tothe right or left side as desired, and the curved surface of the snowplow may be varied into various configurations.

By varying the configuration of the snow plow 2 into variousconfiguration, one can select the optimum configuration of the snow plow(the thrust angle, the cutting angle, the length of the flat portion,the size of the curved surface, the height, the size of the snowcleaning orifice, the snow throwing angle etc) corresponding to theenvironmental diversities such as the quantity and type of snow, theconfiguration of the road, the speed of the snow removing vehicle,atmospheric conditions, etc. Thereby, the snow throwing distance,height, etc. can be selected freely. Therefore, the snow removingoperations can be performed efficiently and safely at a constantoperational speed.

The snow plow of this invention can be utilized with an ordinaryfour-wheel truck, a crawler tractor, a car on rails etc.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intendedto be included within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A snow plow for a vehicle comprising:a fixing memberattached to the front of the vehicle; an elastic member having avertical axis and a horizontal axis therethrough; means for mounting theelastic member to the fixing member; and telescopic means for deformingsaid elastic member to vary the configuration thereof, said elasticmember being deformable about said vertical and horizontal axes by saidtelescopic means, said telescopic means comprise a plurality ofcylinders arranged in a plurality of generally horizontal rows andgenerally vertical columns with each row and each column having morethan one cylinder therein.
 2. The snow plow as recited in claim 1,wherein said plurality of cylinders are hydropneumatic.
 3. The snow plowas recited in claim 1, wherein said means for mounting comprises aplurality of universal joints.
 4. The snow plow as recited in claim 1,wherein said telescopic means can move one of the top and bottom of theelastic member forwardly and can move one of a left side and a rightside of the elastic member forwardly to adjust positioning of theelastic member.
 5. The snow plow as recited in claim 4, wherein theelastic member has a plurality of corners and wherein the telescopicmeans further can move one of said corners forwardly with respect to theother corners.
 6. The snow plow as recited in claim 1, wherein theelastic member has a plurality of corners and wherein the telescopicmeans can move one of said corners forwardly with respect to the othercorners.